Page 3: A Link to The Past
The legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past (Super NES, 1992) Story Taken place before time, the goddesses have created the world (in the perspective of Hyrule) and has left behind from their departure is the Triforce. Soon, the location of the Triforce became known to the people of Hyrule, thus beginning what will be known as "The Great Cataclysm" where the people of Hyrule fought against each other for possession of the Triforce, many venture to this other world where the Triforce dwelled, but none came back. Some time after that, evil power began to radiate from certain areas of Hyrule, evil monsters began to appear and Hyrule was in chaos, the 7 sages decide to use their combined powers to seal the portals in Hyrule, thus beginning the great war. Many brave Hyrulian knights were lost in this war, but manage to stave off the monsters enough for the sages to cast their seal. Many years after that, a wizard known as Agahnim came and used his powers to relieve Hyrule from it's disasters such as earthquakes, floods and famine. He quickly became the king's personal adviser, but this would be a mistake when Agahnim showed his true colors and killed the king of Hyrule and kidnapped the 7 women who descended from the sages (including the king's daughter: Princess Zelda). With Zelda being the last one, he uses her telepathy powers to call upon somebody who can help her. On a dark, stormy night a young boy named Link was sleeping when he hears Zelda's voice which wakes him up suddenly. Despite Link's uncle's pledge to stay at home, he goes out into the storm and venture to find his uncle who was gravely injured and took his sword and shield. Now, Link's rescue mission will turn into a quest that'll make him take up the legendary Master Sword and venture into the Dark World in hopes to recover the Triforce from the evil Ganon. Gameplay A Link to The Past like Super Mario Bros. 3 before it, returned to the roots of the original game. It used the overhead perspective. However, A Link to The Past takes this several steps further with a deep, intriguing story, refined gameplay and a very long and challenging game overall. The game also had a lot of weapons to use, some of them required magic to use. There were 11 dungeons to explore as well as side quests where you must either help an old man through death mountain and even make an attempt to rescue Zelda once again. Reception Not only was A Link to The Past one of the better games, but it's considered one of the best games for the Super NES. Returning to the game's original roots and taking it several steps further. Trivia * The colors of Red, Blue and Green are constantly used for many items in the games. The Potions, The Tunics, The Knights and the Pendants. * The Catfish creature in the Swamp of Ill Omen in the Dark World will give you a Quake Medallion if you throw something into the circle of stones. This is a reference in Japanese Folklore that a giant Catfish named Namazu wiggles it's tail and causes destruction to Japan in the form of Earthquakes and sometimes Tsunamis. The skull stones represents the spell casted by Kashima (a Japanese guardian god) to suppress Namazu and the circle of stones is supposedly Namazu's prison. * The Master Sword isn't the only weapon in Link's inventory to reflect Agahnim's Magic spheres, you can also use the Bug-Catching Net as well. * There was a contest hosted by the former video game Magazine: Nintendo Power to have a mention in A Link to the Past. The winner was Chris Houlihan, and there was a secret room which contained Blue Rupees and has a Telepathic Tile and it's only accessible through either a glitch or a Game Enhancer. This was removed when the game was re-released for the Gameboy Advance as well for Wii Virtual Console. * The original concept for the game is to have time travel where Link travels between the Present and the Future. This was scrapped, but re-used for Ocarina of Time. * There's a Light World Knight enemy that uses a huge cannon to attack. This was a complete enemy with animation and even AI. Though, this would be removed from the final version of the game, but it remained in the game's code and can be accessible via a Game Enhancer. * In certain houses in Kakariko Village among others have a picture on the wall which resembles Mario. This idea would be used again in Ocarina of Time when in the Hyrule Castle Garden. * In an interview, Shigeru Miyamoto said that A Link to the Past would have a multi-character party system similar to the Final Fantasy series. They would consist of Link and also an elf character, a fighter character, a wizard character and a female character. This was scrapped in favor of the original gameplay of the Legend of Zelda. * Originally, there was going to be a special item called a letter. This would have the same function as the letter in the original game and shares the same item sprite as the dungeon map. * In the Japanese version, the Magic Hammer was named the M.C Hammer. This is a reference to former Hip-Hop Artist: Stanley Kirk Burrell (AKA, M.C. Hammer).